A psychiatric-treatment center in Woodacre closed its doors this week after 20 years of serving clients in a turn-of-the century mansion built by the Dollar and Dickson families.
Officials of the nonprofit Marin Programs for Mental Recovery said competition from HMOs and managed-care programs crippled the center, known as Marin Lodge.
Medical and health insurance began favoring 30-day and outpatient programs rather than long-term residential treatments for mental illness and drug abuse, organizers said.
"[Some clients] are not going to get the treatment they need," predicted Stephanie Hogan, clinical director of the Lodge. "Either you have to be very wealthy or you don't get treatment."
Clients, generally 20 to 30 years old, filled each day with group and individual psychotherapy, as well as activities such as gardening and art. Most eventually became able to function as outpatients, Hogan said.
This week, brushes and easels sat dusty in a gravel-floored shed. A handmade ashtray rested on a verandah railing, its cigarettes covered with cobwebs.
The number of Lodge clients dwindled over the past two years, noted Executive Director Brenda Roberts. The old seven-bedroom home at one time accommodated up to six outpatients and 10 residents treated by up to 15 staffers. Rates were $425 a day, considered comparable to similar programs.
San Anselmo resident Ernie Braun, a photographer and author, told The Light he co-founded the center in 1974 after the government closed down mental institutions "and tossed people out on the street, including my son."
A group of parents got together and, with a $10,000 grant from Marin County and the William Babcock Memorial Endowment, started Marin Parents for Mental Recovery. After leasing a home for the program in San Rafael for several years, it moved to Woodacre.
But the program lost the Great Crepe restaurant in San Rafael, which had given Lodge clients an opportunity for work, and eventually led to closing the Lodge itself.
"I'm sorry to see the program go. There's nothing like it in Marin," Braun said, mentioning the high client/therapist ratio and the fact that the Lodge had no locked gates.
"We had a facility where we could help people no one else could. Managed care just won't put up the money for long term care," he added. "Some people need six months or a year to recover."
The 7,000-square-foot home will go on the market for $890,000, Roberts said.
The three acres of Lodge land form a rectangle in the middle of Dickson Ranch - between an older ranch home and its covered riding ring - across San Geronimo Valley Drive from the Woodacre Store.
The Lodge itself was built in the early century by shipping-magnate Robert Dollar. His only daughter, Mary Grace, had married Fred Dickson of Woodacre.
The mansion was built at Dickson Ranch before Mrs. Grace died in 1921 in a car accident near Sears Point Raceway, said Mel Dickson, Mary Grace's grandson. Fred Dickson was so upset he pushed the slightly damaged car into a creek near the ranch.